Nicely balanced tour this; 2 T20Is, 5 ODIs and 3 Tests, with everything building up to the TEsts. Would be made better if the tour fixture was longer than 2 days, but will take it.

SA to be undeafeated in the Tests btw, no idea about the limited overs stuff though.

Originally Posted by flibbertyjibber

Only a bunch of convicts having been beaten 3-0 and gone 9 tests without a win and won just 1 in 11 against England could go into the home series saying they will win. England will win in Australia again this winter as they are a better side which they have shown this summer. 3-0 doesn't lie girls.

I think the SA would take the tests but I want Duminy to not shine so they can send him back to domestic cricket. 2 or 3 fifty and he'd retain his place. He has technical issues to sort out.

I won't mind if SA lose the ODIs and T20 because they're carrying so many out of form, not-deserved-to guys in their teams.

Gibbs, Bossman, V Der Merve, etc should go back to where they are good at, doemstic cricket.

I have a strange feeling we might win a test but lose the other two. Our test cricket has not been too bad recently and we have JT back from injury to help out young Roach.

The ODI's will be swept by SA as we just have not worked out how to play ODI's against decent opposition. If Gayle fires we might win a match I suppose but that will be about the only joy we take from the limited overs stuff IMHO.

Should be back early next year, but to be honest i doubt he'll even be the same player he was before the injury and i'd rather give our young pacers a chance, we've got Jason Holder, Shannon Gabriel and Nelon Pascal (who'll probably get his chance in this series) doing well for the A-team so i'd expect one of those to be a fixture in our bowling unit by the time Fidel is fit.

As for this series, in the short games it's a toss up really, the tests will be very interesting though, it will be our first under Gibson and we put up a spirited showing in our last two tests against the Aussies, no doubt the likes of Steyn, Morkel, Amla and Kallis will be hard to overcome but on the other hand i'm confident we'll have a spell where we make them look average, and it's whether we take advantage of that moment that could make all the difference in the end.

Gibbs and Albie Morkel have been dropped, while Alviro Petersen and Amla come into the squad....

As for the WI, their A team is currently playing a couple of unofficial 'Tests' in Bangladesh right now, so I don't expect any players currently on A team duties playing any part in the 20/20 and ODI series.